


Paragon

by exarkhos



Series: Paragon [1]
Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon has no meaning here, Multi, long chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-07
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2018-08-29 13:39:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8491933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exarkhos/pseuds/exarkhos
Summary: War is brewing in the galaxy as tensions between the forces of the Republic and the Sith Empire begin to rise. Amidst this turmoil, a chance encounter unites a struggling Sith warrior and an ornery bounty hunter on a journey to restore some balance to their slowly slipping lives.  A transcribed, novelized version of a long-standing RP set within the world of Star Wars: The Old Republic. There are spoilers for the Sith Warrior, Bounty Hunter, and Sith Inquisitor paths. This is the edited, restructured version of a transcription I worked out in 2015. If you want to read that version, it's available on AO3 under the title 'Old Paragon'. All 40,000 words of it.





	1. The Black Talon

There was a woman speaking Huttese over the intercom. Aphadas wasn’t paying attention to her - he did not speak Huttese - instead he busied himself with the wrapper of a ration bar. His meaty fingers had trouble getting the cellophane open without sending the bar flying across the room. Something he desperately did not want to do, as the floor of the Black Talon’s passenger bay did not look very clean. After he’d struggled long enough, smaller hands gingerly extracted the bar from his own and Aphadas followed the bar with his eyes as Vette took it and deftly opened it. All without looking up from her holobook. 

“You’re a saviour,” Aphadas rasped. 

“I know.” Vette patted his arm and handed the bar back to him. 

Aphadas took it and pulled off his mask so he could eat. This revealed his prosthetic lower jaw and the scars that covered most of his face. He didn’t think much about them anymore, but he saw the look a Rodian sitting near them gave him. Aphadas looked like a freak. He focused on the bar, chewed it and swallowed. 

Through a mouthful, he asked, “Where are we going? 

“Dromund Kaas, to meet with Lord Baras,” Vette answered him. “Do you remember?” 

Aphadas shrugged. Not really, but he knew that it didn’t matter if he remembered. As long as he did his job, pleased the Sith council, he would have opportunity to fight. That was all he wanted. “Okay.”

“Phada, that’s not an answer,” Vette chided him. She set down her book. “Do you remember what Baras said on Korriban?” 

“No, but you do.” 

Vette sighed and shook her head. Aphadas sank back against the wall and tried to make his balk look smaller than it was. A hard thing to manage when one was nearly seven feet tall and made entirely of muscle. He stood out in most crowds, which he enjoyed and made more obvious with his bright red and black combat leathers, but at that moment he wanted to disappear. “I don’t remember, I apologize…”

“It’s alright,” Vette said. She patted his arm again. “We’re doing just fine.”

“Alright,” Aphadas sighed. He put the rest of the ration bar in his mouth and contemplated what she’d said as he chewed. “What did Baras say?” 

“You’re going to be his apprentice.” Vette pulled away from him slightly as she said that. “I’m sure you’re very proud.”

Aphadas furrowed his brow. “Maybe. I am not sure…”

Vette shrugged, and he knew the conversation was over. She’d picked up her holobook again.

He considered a nap to pass the time. They were on one of the fastest shuttles in the galaxy, but the trip from the Imperial Fleet to Dromund Kaas was still a fair distance. Long enough that he could catch a few winks of sleep before he was expected to be presentable, to meet with Lord Baras again. 

“Hey, Vette, I’m-” Aphadas did not get to finish informing her of his plan. A woman emerged from the crowd of passengers and stopped directly in front of them. She stared at him, and he stared back.

Aphadas felt Vette lean forward. “Can we help you?” 

“I apologize, I am Lieutenant Silas - the Black Talon’s second in command.” The woman didn’t even bother to look at Vette, and Aphadas immediately narrowed his eyes at her. “Are you Lord Aphadas?” 

“Yes.”

“My Lord, we have your droid aboard and he has requested your presence-” 

Aphadas looked to Vette, who shrugged. “My… droid?” 

Lieutenant Silas nodded. “It requested you by name, my Lord, so I assumed it was under your ownership.” 

“Right. Of course. Take me to it.” Aphadas said. Lieutenant Silas stepped back, and Aphadas and Vette stood up in unison. Aphadas towered over the lieutenant, and reaffixed his mask as she watched him, eyes fixed on his lower jaw. She looked away once the mask was in place. 

When she turned to lead them away, Vette grabbed Aphadas by the elbow and tugged him down to her level so she could whisper. “What droid?”

“I had hoped you would know…” Aphadas glanced at the lieutenant’s back. 

Lieutenant Silas lead them to what seemed to be an office, where a droid stood beside the desk. It was a protocol droid of some sort, and looked to them when they entered. 

“I’ll leave you to it,” Silas said and closed the office door behind her as she left. 

“My Lord, I am glad the lieutenant managed to find you. My master, Grand Moff Kilran, became aware you would be aboard the Black Talon and sent me to intercept you. Time is of the essence, and as you were-”

“What does the Grand Moff want?” Aphadas cut the droid off. It tilted its head at him, and vocalized a small tsk of disapproval. 

“I have a line open to Kilran, he will explain the mission to you himself.” 

Aphadas gestured for the droid to open the call. A moment later, the Grand Moff appeared in shimmering blue above the holoterminal. He was a large man, similar in stature to Aphadas himself, and even sported nasty burn scars on his face. Despite this, he managed to look put together. Just as one would expect a Grand Moff to look. 

“Lord Aphadas, it is a pleasure. I am Grand Moff Kilran, you may have heard of me referred to as ‘the butcher of Coruscant-’” 

“I don't know who you are.” Aphadas cut him off. He didn't intend to be rude, but by the look on the Grand Moff’s face, he was less than pleased. “But go on.”

Kilran raised one, perfect eyebrow, but continued. “Imperial Intelligence has acquired information that a man carrying information is attempting to defect to the Republic. He is simply known to us as the General. A Republic cruise called the Brentaal Star has this traitor on board, and is ferrying him out of our reach. The Black Talon is the only ship in the area that could reach the Brentaal Star in time to intercept.” 

“A traitor?” Aphadas looked to Vette, who shrugged at him. She seemed disinterested, though he often had trouble telling. He knew the Empire was a sore spot for her, that she would rather not be helping them, however it was his job. “You need me to retrieve him, then.”

“Very astute, yes, that is indeed the plan. We have acquired the aid of a bounty hunter who is also aboard the Black Talon. I understand that you are fresh off Korriban and will most likely need the support when you enter the Brentaal.”

There was too much information coming at him all at once, Aphadas could already feel himself begin to drift, facts he was being told slip away. He stared at the Grand Moff and did his best to seem like he was paying full attention. “Korriban? Yes. My trials were delayed, but I am perfectly-”

“I am not doubting your abilities, my Lord, I simply want to ensure this mission goes through with as few hitches as possible. Thus, the bounty hunter. He comes… highly recommended.”

“Oh. That’s good.” 

Kilran smirked at him. “Are you having trouble keeping up, my lord? I believe these instructions are simple enough.” 

Anger rippled through Aphadas. He drew himself up to his full height and fixed Kilran with a glare. “I understand you, Grand Moff.”

“I had heard rumours of a Sith acolyte who was on his second attempt at the trials, and caused quite a stir with his… Handicap.” 

Had the Grand Moff been in the room, Aphadas would have grabbed him. As it were, he simply stepped forward toward the terminal, and turned off the broadcast. 

“Phada!” Vette hissed. “You know that’s going to bite us in the ass.”

Aphadas shrugged. He turned to the droid. “Bounty hunter. Where is he?” 

“He left for the bridge already, my lord. I am receiving another holocall from Grand Moff Kilran, shall I-” 

“No,” Aphadas snapped. “You know what we’re to be doing, you tell me.”

The droid looked uncomfortable, or at least as uncomfortable as a droid could manage. He shifted awkwardly from one foot to another. “Your first goal should be to acquire the Black Talon. The captain has refused his aid. If need be, you may use force.” 

“Alright. We can do that.” Aphadas put a hand to his lightsabre, the weight of it comfortable at his hip. 

“Once you have acquired the ship, I will provide coordinates to the Brentaal Star and jump to them. Then you must board the Republic cruise. Your mission objective is simple: Find the General and return him to Imperial custody… Or you could kill him, I suppose, but I am simply a droid.” 

“Let’s go find this bounty hunter,” Vette said when the droid was finished. “This sounds like it might be fun.” 

She sounded strained, and was already nudging Aphadas out of the room. Her small hand pressing into the small of his back to get him to leave. Vette looked tiny next to him, she did not even reach his shoulder, but Aphadas knew she was capable. She’d saved his life more than once back on Korriban. He trusted her and enjoyed working with her, but this bounty hunter. He did not know what to think. Instead of worrying about it, he focused on repeating the details of the mission to himself as he left Vette lead him out of the office and down the corridor, hopefully in the direction of the bridge. 

***

Short. The man arguing with a member of the Black Talon’s crew was short. Aphadas stared at him as they walked up, the corridor ahead blocked off by both a handful of armed guards and a red barrier. The man wheeled around when Aphadas and Vette were close enough. He had on a helmet, Aphadas could not see his face, something he did not enjoy. Aphadas’ mask only covered the lower portion of his face, it fit snug over his nose and jaw - kept dust and debris out of his prosthetic. 

“Are you the sith?” the man demanded, and Aphadas realized he must be the bounty hunter. 

“Yes,” Aphadas replied. 

“This man,” the bounty hunter pointed back over his shoulder at the crewman, “doesn’t seem to be aware that you’re to take charge of this ship.” He sounded annoyed, Aphadas had a feeling that this mission was going to be more tiresome than he had originally thought. 

“I am to take charge of the ship,” Aphadas said. He looked at the crewman the bounty hunter had been arguing with. Towered over him. “We need to get to the bridge.” 

“Look, the captain already spoke with that Grand Moff, and he doesn’t want to risk it. He’s already sent his refusal.” 

“I don’t think you get much choice in the matter, anymore,” the bounty hunter snarled back. 

Aphadas shook his head. “We need to speak to the captain,” he said again. 

“Yeah, well I’ve been given orders to not allow you past,” the crewman stood his ground. 

The bounty hunter growled and threw up his hands. Aphadas heard another exasperated sigh and turned his head slightly, looked down. The bounty hunter had a girl with him, who looked just as annoyed as her boss. She fiddled with a datapad and glared at the crewman. Aphadas was reminded of Vette, and he smiled behind his mask.

Vette also sighed. “If you do not let us through, we have been given orders to use force. We don’t want to do that.” 

“I want to do that,” the bounty hunter snarled. “And I don’t have any higher ups to answer to. No one said I had to keep anyone aboard this ship alive in order to get paid.” 

“Please, I don’t want to get anyone killed, but you need to understand that I can’t just let you waltz up to the-” 

He didn’t get to finish his line. Aphadas had drawn one of his lightsabers and stuck it through his stomach before anyone else could blink. He, himself, had not even registered doing it until the blade was hilted in flesh. He yanked the blade upwards, and split the man from stomach to his shoulder. The crewman dropped to the ground, his corpse smoked slightly - he’d died instantly. 

Aphadas heard more guns being drawn, and he reacted by pushing outwards with the force. Everyone ahead of him was sent back metres, most of them knocked to the ground. One man hit the red barrier and didn’t get back up. 

“Let’s go,” Aphadas grumbled and stepped over the smoking body. “Vette, get the barrier.” 

“You got it.” Vette’s voice sounded weak, but she did what she was told. That was all Aphadas could ask of her. 

“Yikes,” he heard the girl mumble, but she got no reply from anyone as the barrier came down and they headed towards the bridge.  
There was some resistance on the way to the bridge. Guards were sent out to stop them, but they were cut down easily. Aphadas led the way, and those he couldn’t handle on his own, met their fate with one of the bounty hunter’s blasters. The guards in front of the bridge hesitated when they arrived, and Aphadas only had to growl at them to get them to lower their weapons and step aside to let the small group pass. 

“Man’s feral,” Aphadas heard the bounty hunter growl behind him. “This is why I hate working with Sith.” 

The bounty hunter was shushed by his small companion, and Aphadas felt Vette put a hand on his arm. He looked down at her, raised his eyebrows as he wondered what she wanted. Vette smiled. 

“Maybe tone it down a touch there, Phada. We need these people on our side.” 

Aphadas nodded. He relaxed his posture and looked up. Ahead of them, the captain and some other crew stood on a raised dais at the other end of the room. Large viewports looked out into open space behind them. He realized that he would have to talk to the crew, convince them to let them take control of the ship, after he had cut his way through most of the ship’s guards to get here. Aphadas’ step faltered and he looked around to the bounty hunter just a few paces behind him. 

“Can you do the talking? I am… Not so great with diplomacy.” 

“I can tell.” The bounty hunter holstered his gun. “Diplomacy will cost extra.” 

Aphadas exhaled through his nose, amused. “Fine.” 

The bounty hunter took the lead, Aphadas followed close behind him, and Vette and the girl took up the rear. He heard the two girls exchange a few hushed words, but Aphadas’ ears were beginning to pound with his own excited heartrate and he couldn’t pick out the words over it. The bridge staff watched them wearily as they marched towards the command podium, where a man Aphadas guessed to be the Black Talon’s captain stood with his arms crossed over his chest. He was trying to look big, but anyone with eyes could tell he was terrified. 

“I am going to request you leave my bridge,” the captain shouted at them before they were even half-way across the room. 

The bounty hunter did not stop, so neither did Aphadas. Their boots echoed on the metal floor, the room was that quiet. Aphadas glanced down to the bounty hunter. They cut an intimidating pair, he thought, as they walked. Their armour was similar in colour and both wore some sort of mask. Aphadas liked it when things matched, but Vette usually refused to wear red. She always told him that it didn’t go well with her complexion, and that it made her look too ‘Sith-y’. Aphadas was just about to tell the bounty hunter this when he heard a blaster click and he was dragged back to reality. 

A laser hit the floor right at his feet, and singed the metal floor with black.

The blaster in the captain’s hand was pointed at him. Aphadas snarled under his breath, put a hand to the lightsaber at his hip. 

“Stop that,” the bounty hunter snapped.

“If you shoot him, he’s just going to kill you and your crew.” Vette stepped up beside Aphadas, who nodded his agreement.

The captain hesitated before he relented. He put his blaster away, stepped back and, with a gesture, invited them up onto the podium. Aphadas smirked behind his mask, but said nothing. He saw Vette’s face and knew that she wasn’t amused, probably with him. He wondered what the bounty hunter’s face looked like. He would have to ask him when they got a moment. 

“This mission the Empire wants to send my ship on, you do know it is suicide, don’t you?” The captain glowered at them all and Aphadas smiled back out of some kind of spite. Even if he knew the captain couldn’t see it. Not that his smiled looked like much, thanks to the metal that tugged at the muscles of his face.

“I don’t care.” The bounty hunter gestured at the controls of the ship. “Have you decided to let us commandeer your vessel, or are we going to have to do some more convincing?” 

“There are civilians on board this ship, you know. What about them?” 

“There are always casualties in war,” Aphadas mumbled. He saw the bounty hunter glance at him, saw the captain raise his eyebrows, and realized that he’d spoken aloud. He furrowed his brow. “We have to make sacrifices.”

He liked sounding smart. It so rarely happened, Vette was too hard to impress and he had taken to not speaking as he navigated his trials on Korriban. When Vette had joined him, he had left most of the negotiating to her. She was much more personable than him, for numerous reasons. 

“What he said.” The bounty hunter inclined his head. 

“Stars, Grand Moff Kilran found people just as crazy as he is…” The captain glanced around at his crew. “If I say no?” 

“The sith does his thing with his lightsabre.” 

The captain swallowed. “I suppose I don’t have much choice.”

“Good man.”

The droid, which had followed them onto the bridge, and pushed past the ensign at the helm to start their jump. “Captain, please prepare the crew to jump into hyperspace. I have already entered the coordinates.” 

The captain nodded and turned to one of the ensigns, most of the bridge crew milled about nervously and seemed relieved that no one had died. They jumped into action when the captain began to bark orders and for a moment Aphadas didn’t have to focus on what was happening. They would jump to the coordinates and, most likely, engage in a firefight. It was pretty standard fare for him at this point in his life. Much easier to manage, and infinitely more predictable than renegade Sith acolyets, or Force beasts. 

He turned to look at the bounty hunter. “Do you speak Huttese?” 

“What?” 

The bounty hunter faced him, arms crossed over his chest. He quirked his hip a bit when he stood like that. Aphadas was a soldier, he stood with his feet firmly planted, but shifted to mimic the bounty hunter. He knew it would put him more at ease, or at least hoped it would. 

“You do not have an Imperial accent,” Aphadas pointed out. “And you do not sound Mandalorian, even if your armour looks it. I was wondering if you spoke Huttese.”

“What the frell does that have to do with anything?” 

“Nothing, I-” Aphadas hesitated. “There was a woman making an announcement in Huttese earlier. I was wondering if you could understand her.” 

He was pretty sure that if he could have seen the bounty hunter’s face, his eyebrows would have shot upwards. Instead he just stared at the blank helmet visor and wondered what he was thinking. He heard a giggle and looked over to the girl, who covered her mouth when Aphadas caught her laughing. 

“Oh no! I didn’t- I’m sorry I wasn’t laughing at you, uh, sir?” The girl shrank back and ducked her head. 

Aphadas realized he was probably glaring at her. He tried his best to soften his face, not sure if it really did anything. “I’m not angry,” he said. 

“In all honesty, he probably forgot you were there,” Vette said. She came up to them and patted Aphadas on the arm. “Stop asking weird questions, Phada. You’ll unnerve the help.” 

“I did not forget.” I am just not used to people laughing… Aphadas glanced down at his feet, then around as the engines grew louder. The ship was entering a hyperspace jump. He watched as the stars outside blurred to line and felt the usual lurch of his stomach from the momentum of the jump. 

The captain was making an announcement to the rest of the ship’s passengers over the ship’s comm system, which Aphadas ignored. Vette was talking again, and he was much more concerned about what she had to say than what the cowardly man who captained the Black Talon was telling his crew. 

“My name’s Vette.” She smiled as she introduced herself. “If we’re going to be working together, might as well let you know our names. This big guy is Lord Ratha-”

“Aphadas is fine,” he interjected. He knew that Vette was teasing him, but he hated being addressed by his title, it made him sound too formal. 

“I’m Mako,” the girl said. “And, um, this is…” 

She trailed off and looked at the bounty hunter, who was distinctly looking away from the rest of them. 

“Nisur,” he grunted. 

“Yeah, uh, it’s nice to meet you both. Hopefully this job won’t be too challenging, but I guess we’re getting paid enough for it, even if it is.” 

“The empire mentioned hazard pay.” The bounty hunter shrugged. 

Aphadas frowned again. “I’m not getting paid…” 

“Yes, you are, you just get stipends from the military.” Vette chuckled and patted his arm. “That’s how we afford to travel on shuttles like the Black Talon, and food for your bottomless stomach.” 

“Oh my stars, yours too? Nisur can eat his weight in rations,” Mako said.

The two girls started talking after that. Aphadas tuned them out, and stood with his hands resting behind his back. He was relaxed, but ready for anything. The stance had been ingrained in him during his training first on Zoist, and then later Korriban. Or at least, so he thought. He had no memory of his time on Zoist, and his first trials on Korriban. He had returned to the Sith’s homeworld to take the trials again, but that had been different. He had been different…

“Kriff, how long is this jump…” The bounty hunter grumbled. 

Aphadas glanced down at him. “I am, er, not sure. I do not know much about ships.” 

“I wasn’t really asking you, big guy.” 

“Ah.” Aphadas looked away. 

The Black Talon slipped seamlessly out of hyperspace, and they were greeted with the sight of a Republic cruiser that filled up the view out the commander center’s window. Aphadas raised his eyebrows. Almost immediately he saw fighters launch from its belly and Aphadas gripped his belt to calm the adrenaline that had kicked in. 

He was ready for a fight. 

“Sith, we’re being hailed!” The captain called from the holoterminal. 

Aphadas turned and walked over. A Moff appeared, he had a feeling it was the one who had contacted them earlier, but he did not recognize him. “Moff, we’ve jumped in to intercept the, ah, target.” 

“You have some gaul, Sith,” the Moff said. He sounded angry, with Aphadas, who could not remember why he might be. “Disconnecting a holocall from a Grand Moff.”

Ah. That would be it. 

Aphadas squared his shoulders and nodded. “My apologies, Grand Moff.”

There was silence through the bridge as Aphadas and the Grand Moff stared each other down. Finally, the Grant Moff relented. 

“We will deal with that later. Time is of the essence. They will have noticed you by now and will try to stop you from boarding. It is essential-” 

The holocall cut out. Aphadas looked around to the captain, who in turn looked, panicked, to the communications officer. 

“Sorry, sirs, the transmission was intercepted! We have another call coming in from, er… Republic lines.” 

“Put it through,” the bounty hunter growled. He stepped up next to Aphadas, crossed his arms over his chest. Despite being nearly two whole heads shorter than him, Aphadas thought the hunter looked just as intimidating. He hummed slightly to himself, his vocalizer buzzing in response. 

The hologram flickered into existence and a woman, dressed in what Aphadas assumed was some sort of Jedi get-up, appeared. He had never seen her before, and his first thought was that she was pretty. Something about her face. He furrowed his brow. 

“Sith, I apologize for interrupting your transmission, but what I have to say is very important,” the woman said. “You are making a grave mistake.” 

“You’re a jedi, aren’t you?” The bounty hunter asked. 

“Yes, my name is Satele Shan. I am a Jedi Master and am here to plead that you turn around and leave the Brentaal Star to escape Imperial space.”

Aphadas shook his head. “Why would we do that?”

“The Empire is making steps to rekindle their war with the Republic. The General has offered to help the Republic keep the peace. With his aide we will stop this war from happening, and I hope that you will allow this. He poses no threat to you, however the Brentaal Star is a military vessel and equipped with weapons that will tear your ship to shreds.” 

“That’s pretty violent language, for a Jedi,” the bounty hunter said. 

“I speak only the truth.” Satele bowed her head. “Please, reconsider. Is one traitor truly worth the life of all those on board your ship?” 

Aphadas turned to the captain. “Cut the transmission.” 

The hologram of the jedi master flickered out. Aphadas turned to face those on the command podium. They all looked at him, and he remembered exactly why he hated doing this sort of thing. Words failed him for a moment, until Vette gave him a small smile. His confidence bolstered, he took a deep breath. 

Before he could begin, one of the ensigns shouted from her post. “Captain, we have missiles and pods incoming!” 

“Take evasive actions. Those pods will have sabotage droids in them, do not let them latch on to our hull.” 

“Beginning evasive maneuvers.” 

The Black Talon lurched violently, and Aphadas only just managed to keep his footing. He saw the bounty hunter’s companion stumble, and reached out a hand to steady her. She smiled at him.

“Captain, there’s personnel transports incoming!” 

“Boarding parties. Damn. Sith, can you and your party handle them?” 

Aphadas looked to the bounty hunter, who shrugged. They had managed the Black Talon’s security team well enough, so Aphadas had a feeling a few Republic boarding parties would be no problem. 

“We can handle them,” Aphadas said. “They may go after civilians. Keep them in the passenger bay at all costs.” 

“You’ll have to hold the ship while the sith and I board the Brentaal Star and track down the General, can you do that?” the bounty hunter asked. 

The captain looked uncertain, but he nodded. “Yes, I think we can manage that.” 

“Good, send word to the docking bay - we’re going to take a transport over to the cruiser. We need the fastest one you have.” 

Not waiting for more instruction, the captain turned and started barking orders to his crew. There were lots of uncertain faces around the command center, but everyone seemed determined enough. Aphadas pulled his sabers off his belt and gripped them in his fists. 

“I will take point,” he told the bounty hunter. 

“I’ll provide cover.” He turned to look at the girl, her name had escaped Aphadas’ mind. “You stay at the back. The twi’lek, er, Vette? You too.” 

The girl and Vette nodded in unison. “I’ll throw kolto where it’s needed,” The girl said. 

Vette grinned at Aphadas. “I’ve got your back, too, big guy.”

Aphadas nodded at her. He would have said something, but the ship rocked drastically and the power flickered for a moment. When it came back on, it was accompanied by alarms going off on what seemed like every console on the ship. 

“I think that was a pulse cannon!” Someone shouted. 

“We’ve definitely been boarded!” Another crewman called. 

The captain looked over at them, Aphadas met his eye. “We’ll deal with the boarding parties on our way to the docking bay,” he said. 

With a nod, the captain turned from them and back to his crew. 

Aphadas waved a hand and motioned for his group to follow him. He took off towards the bridge doors, everyone following closely behind him. His heart hammered in his chest, excitement beginning to build. This kind of fight, where it was do, or die, this was what he lived for. 

***

They encountered their first resistance one floor down. A boarding craft had breached the hull of the Black Talon and republic troopers blocked their way to a secondary lift that would take them to the docking bay. There were ten of them, in white armour and carrying big blaster-rifles that had Aphadas’ blood racing. 

He pulled on the Force around him and leapt, launched himself forward through the air. They had not expected the sudden attack, and by the shout from behind him, neither had the bounty hunter. 

Red plasma flared as he drew one sabre in mid-air. 

Aphadas whooped as he crashed down right in the middle of the Troopers, and with a sweep of his off-hand blade he brought down the two troopers nearest. They crashed to the deck, their armour smoking and guns clattering away. Aphadas did not stop to see if they were dead or not. Blaster fire followed him, a quick look back over his shoulder told him that the bounty hunter had opened fire. A trooper to Aphadas’ left dropped to the ground, then another. 

With four down, that left six. Aphadas made quick work of one. He hadn’t even drawn his main saber yet, prefering his off-hand blade. With his right hand he reached out with the force and picked up one of the remaining troopers, the bounty hunter finished him off with a shot to his forehead. Aphadas dropped him and wheeled around. He sprung into the air, just barely avoiding hitting the ceiling.

Now he drew both blades and, with enough force behind his leap, he slammed back down and knocked the three troopers off balance. He spun, blades extended, and cut through all of them. Two fell, the third only lost an arm. Aphadas finished him off with a quick thrust of a blade. 

The smell of burnt flesh rose in the air and Aphadas hit a button on the side of his mask. It filtered the air, blocking the smell from over-taking his nose. Not so much because it would make him nauseous, he was very used to it by now, but more because the smell had a tendency to make him hungry - something that always, in turn, left him nauseous. 

He turned when the others approached. There had been minimal bloodsplatter, but he was still standing amongst the fallen corpses of ten men. He gingerly stepped away from them, towards the lift. 

“You’re a force of nature!” the girl exclaimed. “That was awesome!” 

Vette smiled at him, gave him a thumbs up. Aphadas blushed a bit. “Ah, thank-you.”

The bounty hunter said nothing, but he did nod. Aphadas decided he’d take that as approval, and nodded back. The girl, who had some talent as a slicer, he was informed, detached the boarding craft from the Black Talon and sent it floating into space before they continued on. 

The lift took them down a floor, to another corridor. It was free of troopers, but they could hear blaster fire up ahead, past a bulkhead door that was shut tight. Aphadas stopped at the control panel, looked at it, then stepped aside to let Mako through. 

“I’ve got this,” she said. 

It only took her a few seconds to get the door to open. It slid apart in two seconds, splitting down the middle, to reveal a huge droid standing there. It’s blaster cannons pointed directly at them. 

“Move!” The bounty hunter shouted. 

They scattered to either side of the corridor just as the droid opened fire. The frame of the bulkhead kept them safe from the lasers, Aphadas had his back pressed tight against the wall. The bounty hunter was across from him and waved to get his attention. 

He pulled a grenade off his belt and motioned to Aphadas, who took a moment to process what he was being told. The grenade was a distraction. The bounty hunter want him to jump in the minute it went off. 

Aphadas nodded and braced himself. The bounty hunter rolled the grenade through the bulkhead door and the minute Aphadas heard the explosion go off he jumped. He turned in the air and crashed into the droid with his shoulder. His teeth jarred together, pain shot up where metal met bone, but the hit did its job - the droid was already off-balance from the blast and went down, taking Aphadas with it. 

Blaster fire followed him. The bounty hunter had his back. 

Aphadas pushed himself up and away, rolling to the deck of the docking bay. Troopers that had been out of sight before converged as the smoke from the grenade cleared. The bounty hunter and Vette had the droid pinned down under continuous blaster fire, so Aphadas turned his attention to these new arrivals. 

He drew both sabres, the sound they made when the plasma blades engaged picked up his heart rate yet again. Aphadas was breathing heavily, excited. The troopers faltered when they saw the red blades, he knew, and he lunged at them. 

With a quick press of a button, his right sabre disengaged and he grabbed hold of the nearest trooper by the throat. The man struggled, kicked out at him, but a moment later he was being tossed into one of his comrades - Aphadas plunged a blade through both of them before they could hit the ground. 

Four left. 

He rounded on them, ready to attack, but only two were within immediate range. Before he could react, they opened fire. His armour absorbed the lasers, they fizzled out when they hit the red and black cuirass, but one lucky shot grazed his exposed temple. Aphadas flinched away at the last second, the laser only drawing a line of searing, hot pain across his scalp, and rolled out of their range, stopping behind some heavy, metal crates. He snarled.

His head was already littered with scars. One more was barely an inconvenience, but he didn’t like getting hit. Blood trickled down the side of his head, and Aphadas wiped it away with a gloved hand. He saw Mako spot him and rush over, sliding the last few feet to stop behind the crates next to him. 

“Did you get hit? Are you alright?”

“Grazed, I’m fine.” Aphadas showed her the wound. Mako frowned at him. 

“Geez, alright. That looked way worse from over there. I think they’ve almost got the droid down- Oh, yeah, there it goes.” 

There was an explosion and the sound of several tonnes of metal dropping to the ground.

Aphadas peered up, over the crate. He saw the smoking wreck of the battle droid, and watched at the bounty hunter and Vette rounded on the remaining troopers. He itched to jump back up and join them, but instead he kept himself in place - though he drummed his fingers on the hilts of his lightsabres. He watched the bounty hunter closely as he unloaded rounds into the troops. From what he could see, the man was well-adapted to fighting. He knew what he was doing, and knew how to use his lesser height to his advantage. When one trooper got too close, the bounty hunter dropped and got in low - a blaster pressed right to the seam of the trooper’s armour, under his arm, and the man dropped when the bounty hunter pulled the trigger. 

It was suddenly very quiet in the docking bay, with all the fighting over. Aphadas got to his feet and strode out from behind the crates, Mako following after him. 

“Anyone injured?” she called. 

Vette spun and rushed over to Aphadas. “Are you alright?”

“Yes.” He showed her the cut. It had already stopped hurting, the stims that he kept pumping through his veins doing a good job of suppressing the pain from injuries both new and old. 

Vette slapped his arm. “Good fight, then.” 

“I only got two…” 

Aphadas was pretty sure he heard the bounty hunter chuckle, but when he looked over again he was checking something on his blasters and didn’t seem to be listening to them. Mako was hovering, doing a quick med-scan of him, but he seemed to have come out of the fight completely unharmed. 

He took a deep breath, looked around. “Which transport are we taking? The sooner we get over to the Republic ship, the sooner we can get everyone here to safety.” 

Mako raised a brow. “I didn’t know Sith were concerned with people’s safety.” 

Aphadas looked at her. She covered her mouth. Before she could apologize, which Aphadas knew she was going to do, he laughed. One of his good-natured, hearty laughs that Vette always told him were kind of cute. 

“I’m not a very good Sith.” 

“You’re a damn competent fighter, though,” the bounty hunter added. 

Aphadas beamed, though it was totally lost behind his mask. “Thank-you.” 

The bounty hunter shook the thanks off, then stowed his blasters in their holsters at his hip. “Let’s just get this over with.”


	2. The Brentaal Star

Vette, the Sith’s companion, piloted. There was a Republic fighter hot on their tail, trying to blast them to pieces. “I don’t know how rough of a landing this will be,” she called as they neared the docking bay of the Brentaal star - their target. “You all might want to hold on tight to something!” 

Nisur gripped the bar above his head and braced for impact as the docking bay rushed up to meet them. He grit his teeth as they hit the deck, the belly of the small transport unit scraping along and surely sending up sparks. Vette was a good enough pilot to slow them just in time, however, so at least they didn’t crash into any of the transports already docked there. He managed to stay on his feet, too. 

The sith was not so lucky. He swayed dangerously, then lost his balance and slammed a shoulder - hard - into the wall of the transport. 

Nisur couldn’t help but ask, “You alright?” 

The sith looked at him, nodded. “My knee, the left one, it’s prosthetic. Doesn’t always lock up properly.” 

Nisur glanced down at the Sith’s leg. He hadn’t noticed before, but the calf was slimmer than his right. The sith didn’t seem to favour it, though, like one usually would when one of your legs was made of metal. He must have adapted his fighting style to account for it, which Nisur had to admit, was pretty impressive. 

He didn’t know what to think about this Sith, yet. So many things that he couldn’t figure out, and didn’t have time to with the pressure on. He shrugged a shoulder and offered his hand to the Sith to pull him upright, a little tricky when the man was over a foot taller than him. With the sith back on his feet and the transport mostly landed, he hit the release on the door and the gang dropped down with a clang. 

Nisur crouched and surveilled the docking bay beyond. He couldn’t see any hostiles for the moment, but he knew they were coming. He could hear the emergency announcement being made: it called for reinforcements in docking bay two - their location. 

“Let’s go.” He didn’t wait for a response, to know if they were all ready. They had to be, if they didn’t want to die. 

He jumped down, hit the deck, and immediately headed for cover behind some crates. To his back was open space; a thin, blue forcefield the only thing keeping them from being sucked out into the vacuum. Nisur pulled out a blaster and peered over the crates to surveil the room.

Whatever guards had been stationed there had scattered when the transport crashed into the bay. Two very large troopers in full combat gear, carrying blaster-cannons, trained the large guns on them. They seemed hesitant to open fire, something that Nisur could use to his advantage. He dropped his helmet’s rangefinder and the hud came to life, lighting up the inside of his visor. Tactical information that he didn’t need, but payed attention to anyway, streamed past his eyes.

Nisur turned as the Sith loomed up next to him. “What’s the plan?” 

“I need you to cause a distraction,” Nisur told him. “Get around the other side of the transport and draw their attention away from me.” 

The sith nodded and crawled on his belly back to the gang of the ship, the only way he could keep his massive form in cover. Nisur watched him stop and exchange a few words with the girls, then Vette followed him around the other side of the ship. Mako stayed in cover, and gave Nisur a little thumbs up. 

He returned the gesture. 

The Sith shouted, and the plan set into motion.

Blaster-cannons tracked on to the Sith’s location around the hull of the transport, taking the attention of the troopers with them. They opened fire and Nisur took his chance, he picked off three of the troops in quick succession. He was about to fire at a fourth, when the sith barrelled into him and knocked him to the ground. Shoulder checks, that was interesting. Nisur shook his head, and shot down a Republic troop who tried to sneak up behind the sith. 

A laser hit the crates just to the left of Nisur’s head, his cover blown. With lasers raining down on him, he bolted for the nearest fresh cover - behind a Republic transport parked several meters away. He dropped and slid into cover behind one of the transport’s landing gear. 

He heard someone shriek, and peered out just in time to see the sith do something with the force. The Republic troop’s armour crumpled inward, and crushed his chest. He screamed as he died. 

A reminder that, no matter how nice he seemed, that man was still a sith. Nisur adjusted his grip on his blasters, shook himself, and leaned out to fire. 

Between himself, the sith, and the twi’lek, it didn’t take them long to clear the docking bay. Nisur took down troops with blaster fire, and exploding darts, and the sith cut down stunned troops with his lightsabers. Vette kept the sith covered a little closer to the action, and Nisur was almost surprised to discover she was decent enough with her blaster. Once the coast was clear, Mako came out from cover and jogged over to the bulkhead doors - sealed shut against the intruders. Nisur knew it wouldn’t take her long to get them unlocked. 

“Mako! Don’t open them, there might be a surprise waiting behind them,” Nisur called to her. He stepped out from cover and holstered his blasters for a moment, to give the cores a chance to cool down. 

“Got it, Boss!” Mako called back. 

The sith was brushing off his leather armour. Bits of plastoid armour, and what looked like chunks of flesh, fell to the ground. Nisur assumed it was from his lightsabers, but then the sith turned to him and said, “Those exploding darts do a lot of damage.” 

Nisur titled his head. “Oh. That explains the bits of gore…” 

“I am used to it,” the sith rasped. He chuckled, almost to himself, and his gaze drifted back across the hangar and the bodies they’d left behind. “It has been a while since I’ve carved my way through so many bodies…”

“Humans, at least,” Vette said. Nisur turned his head slightly to look at her. She was flushed, brows knit, but she seemed alright. No injuries, that was good. 

“Do you remember the K’lor’slugs, Phada? Stars, I never want to see another one… So many creepy bugs.”

The sith shook his head. “They explode if you hit them too hard. It was disgusting.” 

“Remind me not to go to Korriban,” Nisur said. The sith quickly looked back to him, eyebrows raised, and Nisur turned away before they could continue the conversation. He looked to Mako, who was still at the doors. “Got those doors unlocked, Mako?” 

“Ready and waiting,” Mako called back. “We good to go? No one needs a shot of kolto?” 

Nisur turned back to their other companions. Vette shook her head, and the sith just shrugged a large shoulder. Nisur couldn’t see any injuries on him, but he had a feeling the man was probably good at hiding his pain. 

“We’re all good. Let’s go.” Nisur gestured for them to move out. 

***

Their target was on his way to the escape pods. It did not take them long to get to the last set of blast doors between them and their target. Sealed shut, Nisur had no idea what was behind them. 

“Form up,” he called. “Mako, get those doors unlocked.” 

“On it-”

“I can do it.” The sith cut in. When Nisur tilted his head, he continued. “With the Force. I can blast the doors back into the room beyond…”

Nisur pondered that for a moment. His hands drifted down to his hips, fingers tapped on his blasters. They were running out of time, and while Mako was fast, blasting the doors in would be even faster - and provide them with a distraction. “Alright, do that. We’ll follow you in.” 

The sith stepped forward as Nisur and the girls moved to the side, out of any possible incoming fire. Nisur watched as the sith stopped in the middle of the hall, brought his hands down in what looked like some sort of breathing exercise, then he thrust forward with his palms. A shiver ran down Nisur’s spine, and then doors rippled. The metal contracted, then each section of door burst inward with a deafening bang. 

Doors out of the way, they moved in quickly, and were met a pair of heavily armed, Republic troopers. Blaster-cannons tracked on to the sith, the attention of the troopers with them. They didn’t open fire, as Nisur had expected, instead reinforcements spilled out from doors to either side of the chamber, to provide support for the two heavy troopers and, much to Nisur’s dismay, he saw a Jedi among them. 

A kid, probably not even a full-fledged Jedi by the look of him, but he shouted commands to the troopers and Nisur realized that this group was much more organized than the troops that had infiltrated the Black Talon, or any resistance they had met so far. He could tell just by how they held themselves.

“Kriff,” he growled. Then, he raised his voice. “Sith, there’s a jedi!” 

“I see him!” The sith called back. 

They had no time to plan. Nisur almost wanted to call everyone back, but before he could make that decision, the sith jumped into action. He jumped towards the Republic troops and was met with a wall of blaster fire, which the sith deflected away from him with a blast of Force energy - at least, that was what Nisur thought it was. 

Nisur swore vehemently. His immediate instinct was to stay in cover, keep himself safe until the Sith realized his mistake and either died, or retreated. He wished he could have done that, it was the smart thing to do. Nisur did not seem to be in a very smart mood, however, as he vaulted over the crates and sprinted up the length of the docking bay. 

Straight towards the enemy. 

The sith had taken out one of the heavy troopers with his initial leap, landing right on top of him. Another one went down with a smoking hole through his chest, the handiwork of Vette, who was running to catch up to her sith lord. With a quick glance, Nisur deemed that she had realized the problem, as well. She looked tense. 

“Take care of the gunmen! I’ll get the Sith!” Nisur heard the jedi yell. 

The kid used the force to pull one of his own men out of the path of Aphadas’ blade, and deflected both of the sith’s lightsabers with some quick maneuvers of his own. With a push, he sent the sith skidding back a few feet. 

Nisur ground his teeth. The kid had more skills than he’d anticipated by his apparent age.

***

Aphadas grunted as his lightsabers were deflected. He didn’t let the Force push knock him off balance, quickly regaining momentum and bringing both sabres up and down in an attempt to catch the jedi in the shoulders. 

He blocked, blue lightsaber catching both of Aphadas’ red blades and sending them back. Aphadas had enough force behind the blows that it jarred his shoulders. He took the chance and tumbled to the ground, rolled, and came back up out of reach of the jedi. 

“You’re fast for such a big guy!” the Jedi informed him. 

Aphadas snarled back at him.

The jedi was tall, but slender, and Aphadas knew he could use his bulk to his advantage to over-power him if he could catch him off-guard. But the jedi seemed unnervingly fast, Aphadas had barely caught the movement of his blocks before their sabers hit each other. Aphadas had a feeling it had something to do with the Jedi’s heritage, he was obviously not human - hot pink skin splashed with patches of lighter coloured pigment, and dark magenta hair done up into an elaborate knot on top of his head. His eyes were an eerie, vibrant blue-green. They flashed when the light caught them. 

Aphadas regained his stance after the last block and waited. He’d let the Jedi come to him. 

Or so he thought, but the Jedi’s head snapped around and he was gone in a flash. Aphadas tracked him with his eyes, watched as he got in the way of blaster fire from the bounty hunter - aimed at one of his troopers. He deflected it with his lightsaber before it could go straight through the trooper’s helmet. 

“Stay sharp,” the Jedi called, then wheeled back around to use the Force to leap straight at Aphadas. 

A side step took him out of the way, but the Jedi twisted mid-air and Aphadas just barely deflected the blow, low on the blade of his lightsaber. He could feel the heat from the blue plasma as it nearly sliced through his neck. 

Aphadas snarled. “Are you aiming for my head?” 

“It’s quick, it’s efficient.” The Jedi grinned at him, jumping away, only to leap back in before both his feet could hit the ground. He aimed low this time, jabbing upwards. “Harder to do when my target’s so tall, though.” 

Aphadas blocked that attack with ease, and returned with one of his own. He pulled back and swung hard with his off-hand, hoping to catch the kid through his middle. While the jedi went to block that, Aphadas used his thumb to hit the dial on his main-hand saber that shortened the blade, brought it in close to his hip, and stabbed straight forward. 

The jedi yelled as the blade pierced his thigh. Aphadas grunted as his left arm was nearly wrenched from its socket by the jedi’s block. 

“Force, that was a dirty trick,” the jedi limped backwards. “Give me a minute.” 

Aphadas didn’t even try to play fair. He lunged forward again, not even bothering to use his lightsabers, and managed to get a hand around the jedi’s long, slender neck. It felt oddly fragile under his huge palm, and he quickly dropped the jedi to the ground - all of his weight on top of the jedi, fist clenched in an effort to crush his throat. 

He would have succeeded had a blaster not gone off somewhere to his left, the round piercing him through the shoulder. Aphadas grunted and was forced to drop the Jedi, arm on fire with pain from the blast. 

“Kriff.” Aphadas looked around. There were still troopers left, more than he would have expected. He saw Vette, saw that she was bleeding from a few places where blaster rounds had grazed her. He could hear the bounty hunter sending off incendiary rounds, but he was out of his range of vision. Aphadas wrapped his hand over the wound on his shoulder. 

The trooper that had shot Aphadas rushed over and pulled the Jedi up to his feet. “Are you alright, Captain?” 

“I’ll make it,” the Jedi replied. 

Aphadas stared at them, shook his head slowly. Whoever this Jedi was, he was obviously fond of his troops. Aphadas had a sinking feeling that they might lose to him, if they didn’t turn the tides soon. 

***

Nisur saw the Sith get shot, but there was nothing he could do from a distance. He was unloading rounds at the remaining heavy trooper, but they just ricocheted off his armour - completely useless. He’d run out of incendiary rounds taking out two other troopers. 

He could tell that Vette was getting worn down, and Mako was trying to stay as close to cover as she could. Nisur had purposefully put himself between her and any immediate danger, he wouldn’t forgive himself if she got badly wounded in this fight. It was a stupid errand for the Empire, and it was not how she - or himself, for that matter - was going to go down. 

Nisur reached to his belt and yanked off one of the grenades he kept handy. These troopers were good, but the real problem was the jedi - he was a better strategist than the sith, who seemed to rely mostly on his brute strength to get him through a fight. If that jedi took out the sith they were all dead. 

“Aphadas!” Nisur shouted. It was the only warning he gave, before he armed the grenade and lobbed it straight at the jedi. 

He watched them all scatter just before the grenade went off. In the chaos that followed, Nisur was able to get over to the Sith’s side and drag him back to Vette’s position to regroup. Mako joined them shortly. The sith was panting, one hand clamped over his shoulder - blood trickling down from between his fingers. He winced when Mako reached up and pulled his hand away, but didn’t protest the application of kolto spray to help heal it faster. 

“That jedi’s a problem,” Vette announced. 

“Do you think you can pin him down?” Nisur asked the sith. 

“He’s fast, but he lacks discipline in his fighting technique.” The sith’s voice was rough, filtering out through his mask. It had a strange tinny quality to it that Nisur had noticed earlier, made him wonder if the sith had a synthetic voice box. He didn’t ask, though, it wasn’t important. “If you can get the troopers away from him, I should be able to bring him down.” 

Nisur nodded. “Mako, and, er, Vette. You work with me. We don’t let the troopers get close to the sith, understood?” 

“Sure thing, boss.”

“Got it.” 

Smoke dissipated and when it cleared, Nisur saw the jedi and his troopers had also regrouped. The jedi looked like he was tiring, a distinct limp from when the sith had got him through the thigh. He grinned at them from across the distance.

Nisur replied by sending an explosive round directly into their midst. The blast managed to pull the jedi off to the right of his troops. Nisur signalled and they moved in. 

He didn’t see the sith jump in, but he heard the distinct sounds of plasma hitting plasma as the jedi was engaged in combat. With both Mako and Vette to support him, Nisur made quick work of the main bulk of the troopers. When there were only two left, the sith joined them and dropped them in just a few swings of his lightsabers.

Nisur hadn’t heard the Jedi go down. The fighting was over, though, and when he looked around he saw the kid collapsed in a heap. He wasn’t dead, but there was no way he’d be getting up any time soon - the Sith had hacked one of his arms clean off, just above the elbow. The detached arm lay some feet away from the Jedi’s body, and he was clutching at the stump. 

The Sith, much to Nisur’s surprise, went over to him after the fighting was done. 

“I’m not going to kill you.” 

“You should.” The Jedi laughed, bitterly. His voice was shaking. “I’ll never live this one down.” 

“You will be fine.” The sith grabbed the Jedi’s lightsaber from the ground and did something to the hilt. It opened up and the crystal core dropped out, clinking to the ground. The sith stepped on it, turning it to dust right before the Jedi’s eyes - he flinched obviously. “Where’s the General?” 

“If he’s smart, already in an escape pod, on his way to Coruscant.” The jedi sneered up at the sith. 

“Call him. Tell him to wait.” 

“And why the frell would I do that? I’m not stupid, you’re going to kill him.” The jedi shifted slightly. 

“True. And I will kill you, too, if you don’t.” 

The sith said it with such a deadpan that Nisur couldn’t help but grimace. The guy was big enough to be terrifying when he talked like that. The jedi seemed to feel it too, because he looked away. Wilted slightly, lying there on the deck. 

“You already took my arm, can’t we leave it there?” 

The Jedi didn’t get an answer from the sith. He just crouched down, and the next second he had lifted the Jedi up by his throat. “Vette, get his communicator off his belt.” 

“Right.” Vette rushed over and unhooked the device from the jedi’s belt. She stepped back. 

With the sith’s hand firmly clamped around his neck, undoubtedly crushing his windpipe, the Jedi could only struggle weakly in response. He was dropped back to the ground a moment later, crumpling in a heap. The jedi coughed as he tried to recover. “Fine, I’ll tell him to hold. Just… let the Brentaal Star jump to safety, when you’re done.” 

“Deal.” The sith took the communicator from Vette and thrust it at the jedi. 

When he pulled his remaining hand away from the stump, revealing the burned sleeve of his tunic, and the singed, bloody stump. The jedi pressed a button on the comm, and made an effort to steady his voice as he spoke. “General, this is Tehn. Hold your position. I’m coming to where you are.” 

He released the button, and a weak voice replied, affirming that the general would be staying put. The jedi tossed aside his communicator. “There, happy?” 

“Thank-you,” the sith said. “Where are the escape pods?” 

“C deck, two decks up.” 

Nisur half expected the sith to finish the Jedi off after he got his answer, but Aphadas just straightened up and stowed his lightsabers on his belt. “Let’s go.” 

With one last glance at the maimed Jedi, they left the cargo bay to find a lift to take them up the decks. Aphadas and Vette led the way this time, leaving Nisur to walk in the rear with Mako. He watched the Sith’s back as they proceeded. 

“That was strange, for a Sith,” Mako commented quietly. 

Nisur grunted in reply. She was right, it had been totally unexpected. From his experience, Sith didn’t leave enemies alive - it wasn’t their way. 

“Vette’s really nice, you know, I bet Aphadas is too, when he’s not killing people.” 

“Don’t get attached. After this is done, we’ll probably never see him again.” Nisur paused. “And if we do, we might not be on the same side.” 

***

They found the General cowering near the escape pod launch site. He had a pair of troopers with him as guards, the bounty hunter dispatched them quickly and efficiently. The General was an unimpressive man by any standards, already covered in bruises, and had an arm cradling his stomach. By the looks of it, he’d been injured badly. 

“Seeing as you are here, and the Jedi is not, I take it he is dead?”

“The kid with the horns? He’s back in the cargo bay - missing an arm,” Vette taunted. 

Nisur was shocked, he hadn’t thought she’d had it in her. 

“Bastards… Do you even know why the Empire wants me back? Am I really worth all this death?” 

“No idea. I don’t get paid to ask questions.” Nisur was sure he came off as smug, but he honestly didn’t care. This was just another job, that needed to be completed. In the distance, alarms were still going off, but Nisur had a feeling no one would be coming for them any time soon. He stowed his blasters and turned to the defector. He grabbed the man and hauled him up to his feet again.

The General seemed shocked. “You’re not here to kill me?” 

“It’s your lucky day, the Empire wants you alive.” 

Nisur watched the man’s face go three shades paler than it already was. “They’ll torture me… I’d be better off dead…” 

“He is right.” The sith walked over and peered down at the General, then at Nisur. His brow was furrowed and he looked like he had a question on the tip of his tongue, but he didn’t ask it. “We could just kill him.” 

Nisur huffed. “Pay’s better if he’s alive.” 

The sith nodded, walked back to Vette and stood by her. She patted his arm and smiled up at him, like a mother praising her kid. “Good job, Phada.” 

“Can we get back? I don’t think there will be reinforcements, but I don’t want to stick around and find out,” Mako said to the group. 

Nisur nodded, shifted the General’s weight a bit, and started trudging back towards the lifts. He wasn’t one to complain, but the sooner they got back to the Black Talon and jumped out, the happier he’d be. By the looks of the other, they were all just as eager to get the job over with. Hefting the whimpering man along, Nisur led the way down the corridor.

He paused when they got to the lifts, and looked up at the sith. “Why didn’t you kill the padawan?” 

The sith looked down at him. He shrugged, and said, “He was only a child.” 

Nisur frowned. He still didn’t know what to expect from this man.


	3. A Personal Challenge

The Dromund Kaas spaceport was busy. Aphadas and his small group exited the Black Talon in a private hangar, where they were met by Imperial soldiers and some unimportant Moff. It seemed that Kilran hadn’t wanted to meet him in person. Aphadas let this other Moff shake his hand, let himself be congratulated on a job well done, and watched as the bounty hunter handed over the defector for the credits he was owed. 

Aphadas wasn't getting paid, but he didn't have any reason to grumble. The Empire paid him enough to get by and that was all he needed. By the way the bounty hunter held himself as he accepted the credit transfer on his data pad, Aphadas had to guess that he enjoyed getting paid for a job well done.

Vette cleared her throat. Aphadas looked around and down at her. “Hm?”

“You’ve been staring, something on your mind?” 

Aphadas frowned. He was sure there had been, when he’d started watching the bounty hunter on their way back to Dromund Kaas, but now he couldn’t remember it. He’d just continued to for no reason other than the bounty hunter was an interesting individual. He hefted one shoulder - the one that hadn’t been stabbed just a few hours before - and shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

“You sure?”

“Vette…”

“Alright, alright. If we’re done here, let’s go - I doubt we want to keep Lord Baras waiting any longer than we already have.” 

“Probably not.” Aphadas sighed. He was thankful for the chance Baras had given him, but he couldn’t say he was exactly excited to see the man again. Resigned, he strode towards the bounty hunter and his companion, stopping just in front of them. The bounty hunter looked up at him, helmet still in place, face - and expression - concealed. 

“You need something?” 

“You fought well, I had fun.” Aphadas stuck out his hand. “I hope that in the future, we do not have to meet in battle.” 

The bounty hunter titled his head down, evidently staring at Aphadas’ hand, before he took it. “Yeah, same to you.” 

“Where are you two headed, anyway? Dromund Kaas isn’t somewhere you come by choice.” Vette had arrived at Aphadas’ elbow and smiled at the other two as she asked her question. 

“We’re going to the Mandalorian enclave,” Mako said. 

“Mako…” The bounty hunter warned her. 

“The great hunt is starting soon, and Nisur’s got the chance to participate in it.” 

The bounty hunter sighed heavily. 

Aphadas raised his brows. “Great hunt?” 

The girl looked excited, and Aphadas couldn’t help but smile behind his mask. She was obviously quite young, and by the way the bounty hunter had protected her during their fights, and the way he had his arms crossed and was (maybe, probably) glaring at her from behind his visor, he could tell that he was quite fond of the girl. Aphadas could see why. 

“Every year they hold a competition, and only the best of the best can enter - or anyone who can manage a sponsorship, I guess. You compete against the top bounty hunters from across the galaxy and in the end, when only one hunter remains, they’re deemed Champion of the Great Hunt and can get any job they want, and charge a whole lot of credits for it, too!” 

The bounty hunter sighed. “It’s not that impressive, really. Anyone can do it.” 

“Nisur, don’t be modest,” Mako chided him. “It's incredibly competitive. We nearly died trying to get our entry token.”

Aphadas laughed. “That sounds exciting. You get to kill a lot of people, doing that?”

“Sometimes! The rules change each year, and the details of the actual targets are always kept a secret, but you have to be prepared to kill, that’s for sure.” Mako smiled at him again. 

“The Mandalorian enclave is in Kaas city,” Vette told Mako. “I think we’re going the same direction, but it’s a long walk from here to the city, unless you want to shell out for a speeder-” 

“We’re not doing that.” Nisur visibly flinched at the suggestion, and Aphadas chortled. 

“The jungles can be dangerous,” Aphadas said. “Travelling in a group would be beneficial. We could go together.” 

“That’s really not-” The bounty hunter began, but Mako was already talking over him.

“Nisur, we should accept that offer. What if we run into something nasty out there? Or… another Sith…” Mako glanced to Aphadas, smiled at him when he caught her eye. 

The most exasperated sigh Aphadas had ever heard filtered out from the bounty hunter’s helmet, but the man shrugged and gestured at them. 

Mako laughed. “Lead the way.” 

Vette instantly took up the lead with Mako beside her. Aphadas was pretty sure she was excited to have another girl to talk to - even a younger one, like Mako. She often complained about Aphadas being too much of a man to understand her. Conversations like that usually ended in him being patted on the arm and told that it was okay if he didn’t get it. So, Aphadas fell into step beside the bounty hunter as they trudged along after the girls. 

“My name is Aphadas,” he said after a few minutes of silence. 

The bounty hunter grunted in reply. 

“What’s your name?” 

That got him a look. “You’ve been told it already.” 

Aphadas furrowed his brow. He knew he had, but he couldn’t remember what it was. “My memory, it’s not so great.”

“... It’s Nisur.” 

“I’ll try not to forget it this time!”

Another grunt. 

They piled onto a lift to take them up to the main floor of the spaceport, with so many other life forms on with them Aphadas tried his best not to take up too much space, but he was just too big. Nisur was jostled into Aphadas’ side. They stood there awkwardly, much too close to be anything but uncomfortable while packed into the tight space. 

“... ‘ _All passengers with luggage should make sure it is stowed in the proper location, with identification tags clearly visible,_ ’” Nisur said. 

Aphadas looked down at him, puzzled by the sudden comment, and Nisur looked away. Aphadas couldn’t tell if he was embarrassed, or not. “What?” 

“That’s the announcement you asked me about earlier,” Nisur said. He still wasn’t looking at Aphadas. “I can speak Huttese.” 

It took a moment, but realization dawned on Aphadas’ face. He grinned. “Of course! You know, I was hoping it would be something exciting…”

Nisur shrugged. 

Aphadas heard giggling, and looked around to see both Vette and Mako behind them in the lift. They had obviously been listening in, because Vette winked at Aphadas. It made him blush for a reason he couldn’t quite place, and he looked back around. Just in time to be saved from the cramped lift as the door slid open. 

“I hope it’s not raining,” Vette commented as they headed for the spaceport doors. 

Aphadas laughed and patted her shoulder. “It is Dromund Kaas, it’s always raining.”

***

“Have you been to Dromund Kaas before?” Mako asked.

Aphadas paused. “I was born here.” 

“Oh! So this is a homecoming for you, huh? That’s nice.” 

The jungles of Dromund Kaas were hot, humid, and filled with monsters. They were walking down what passed for a road. Huge trees rose up on either side, vines practically dripped down from the canopy, and thick ferns grew between the trunks. Rain pattered on the ground in a steady, but light downpour. Aphadas was glad Vette had remembered to actually pack what meagre belongings he’d had back on Korriban - included in them was a travel cloak, that kept the rain off his armour. He took in their surroundings as they trudged on, contemplating Mako’s question. 

“I… do not remember it. The smell is familiar to me, but I have no memories of this place.” 

“Oh.” Mako frowned. She looked sad, and Aphadas didn’t like that, so he smiled at her - though the gesture was lost behind his mask. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” 

“Mako, leave him alone,” the bounty hunter snapped from up ahead, and before Aphadas could say anything, Mako jogged ahead to join him. 

He frowned. “I wasn’t bothered by the question…” 

They were walking in tight enough formation that Mako and Nisur could hear him, and both looked back over their shoulder. After she gave Nisur a quick look, to which he replied with a shrug, Mako dropped back to walk closer to Aphadas. 

“Um, why don’t you remember growing up here?” She asked. She sounded hesitant, afraid, Aphadas realized she was afraid she might be overstepping with her question. 

He took a moment to formulate his answer, and during his pause, Vette spoke up. 

“He got himself blown up.” 

Aphadas shot her a look, and she smiled apologetically at him. “Er, yes. It was several years ago… I have no memory from before the incident.” 

Mako covered her mouth. She’d stopped walking, and their little party stopped along with her. “That sounds terrible.” 

“I’m fine.” Aphadas shrugged. “It does not bother me.”

He didn’t bring up the other issues the explosion had caused, how his memory still slipped even now, two years later. Mako was young, and he didn’t want her to be concerned for him. 

“That how you lose your leg?” Nisur asked suddenly. 

Aphadas nodded solemnly. “Yes. It took my leg, and… Er…”

Nisur tilted his head to one side, and Aphadas looked to Vette. He did not like taking off his mask, when the people around him might be scared of what it covered, but he’d set himself up. Vette gave him an encouraging smile. 

“Go on, might as well,” she said.

“Might as well, what?” Mako asked, and looked quizzically between the two of them. 

In answer, Aphadas reached back and undid the clasps on the back of his mask. With his other hand, he gripped the front and tugged it forward so it pulled away from his face and came to rest around his neck. 

Aphadas could remember his reaction the first time he saw his jaw. It stuck out in his blurry, muddled memory bank like a beacon. He’d been terrified of himself. He saw that panic reflected in Mako’s eyes as they widened. She didn’t stare at him for long, before she instinctively looked away. 

The left side of Aphadas’ face was twisted with burn scars, cut through by a precise, crescent around his eye socket that had been cut in by a surgical blade. His entire lower jaw had been removed, the skin where it met metal pulled tight. The jaw itself was a mix of metal and synthetics, and while it served its purpose, it pulled at his facial muscles and made every smile a twisted grimace of metal teeth, every frown look worse than it was. 

Aphadas put the mask back on. 

“Did it… Was it blown off?” Mako asked. Her voice was shaking. 

Aphadas shook his head. “No. But the bone was shattered beyond repair, from what I was told. I was not… Conscious... For the surgeries.” 

After that, awkward silence hung between the group. Aphadas fidgeted, his gaze drifting to Nisur, who seemed to be looking back at him. The bounty hunter hadn’t said anything, but he seemed to rouse himself when Aphadas’ eyes fell on him. 

“Could have been worse, considering you blew yourself up,” Nisur said. He shrugged and turned around once more, starting off again along the path. 

Mako seemed to take that as a cue to follow him, but Aphadas stared after Nisur. He ran his hand through his hair, which had flopped over from the humidity on Dromund Kaas. He pushed it out of his eyes. 

Vette walked on, and looked back briefly when he still hadn’t followed. Aphadas wasn’t paying attention to them, though, his focus had drifted. Something had alerted him to its presence, something in the force, sending a ripple as it travelled through the underbrush. 

Straight for them.

“Something’s coming!” Aphadas bellowed. He grabbed his lightsabers off his belt and engaged the blades. 

He saw the bounty hunter whip around and draw his blasters, and saw Vette and Mako fall together for safety, but more importantly he felt the ground begin to shake. A beast crashed out of the jungle, straight into the path, between Aphadas and Nisur. 

It was a beast. Huge, powerful, with a mouth full of nasty teeth. It walked on two legs, though its arms were huge and it dragged its knuckles along the ground. Red skin, made entirely of hulking muscle. 

“Phada! It’s a gundark!” Vette yelled. 

Drawn to the sound of her voice, the creature turned its head towards the girls. Before Aphadas could even react, a blaster round hit the beast in the shoulder - it discharged against the tough hide, leaving behind a wisp of smoke. 

“Hey, ugly!” The bounty hunter crowed. 

Aphadas was fairly certain the bounty hunter didn’t expect the gundark to immediately lunge at him, but it did and nearly caught him with one of its huge, clawed fists. He jumped backwards just in time, taking shots at the gundark’s fist so it was forced to reel backwards, away from the biting lasers. 

Lasers that were doing very little against its thick, reddish hide. 

This did not seem to deter the bounty hunter, whose entire demeanour had changed. He seemed looser, and almost, excited. Aphadas stared at him, instead of minding the gundark’s movements. He couldn’t stop himself, it was like watching a whole other man fight. Aphadas realized that this was the bounty hunter no longer on the job, but doing what he was meant to: hunting. 

He was jarred out of these thoughts when the gundark, most likely frustrated with trying to catch the bounty hunter in one of its fists, turned its attention back to him. The punch it threw his direction was short, impacting the ground in front of him, but the shock still sent Aphadas sailing backwards. He caught himself just in time, landing in a crouch, and leaped right into action. 

Aphadas was only briefly deterred by the fact that his plasma blades did not immediately rip through the gundark’s arm when he hit it. They did cut in deep gouges into its red flesh, which sizzled and smoked. Once he joined in, a sufficient distraction for the gundark, they quickly got the upper hand in the fight. Aphadas could not see where Vette and Mako had gone, but he could hear another blaster discharge every now and then, obviously not coming from the bounty hunter. The gundark seemed overwhelmed by both Aphadas and Nisur attacking him at once. Red lasers and red plasma drove the gundark back into the undergrowth of the trees as it sought out cover, though it didn’t stop attacking. 

“Sith! Grab its attention!” 

Aphadas was behind the gundark when he heard the bounty hunter yell. He crouched down and immediately launched upwards. He used the force to propel himself over the gundark, one foot made brief contact on the top of its head to give himself more momentum. The gundark swiped at him, but it wasn’t fast enough to catch him. Aphadas landed in front of it, just to the bounty hunter’s right, and swung around immediately to face the gundark. 

In the process, he nearly caught the bounty hunter’s neck with one of his blades. 

Nisur ducked just in time, Aphadas heard him swear and looked back to see that he had dropped to one knee. He opened his mouth to apologize, but while they were distracted, the gundark took another swipe at Aphadas and caught him across the chest. 

The air was knocked out of his lungs from the impact, and kept out by the gundark’s fist closing around him. He dropped one lightsaber, and only just managed to keep the other one in hand as he struggled, thrashed, tried to get the gundark to drop him. 

He ended up thrusting the blade through the gundark’s forearm. 

The fist released as the gundark howled in pain. Aphadas crashed to the ground, only just managing to disengage his lightsaber so he didn’t get stabbed by it on the way down. 

He gasped for air, lungs burned as he was finally able to breathe. When he looked up, he saw Nisur had circled behind the gundark and now had both feet planted firmly on its shoulders. The gundark thrashed, arm smoking where Aphadas’ blade had punctured it, but Nisur held on and pressed a blaster to the top of its head. 

Aphadas had to roll out of the way as the gundark crashed down. It landed on its stomach, tongue lolling out from its mouth, blood oozing from the corner of its eyes and nostrils. Aphadas was face-to-face with it, and he grimaced behind his mask. 

“You okay?” the bounty hunter asked. He was still perched on top of the gundark. 

Aphadas nodded. He pushed himself up, winced at the pain in his chest. “Nothing broke,” he said. He pressed his hand along his rib cage. “Bruised, though.” 

Nisur nodded. 

Both of them turned as the girls spilled out from between some trees. Vette immediately went over to Aphadas and started fussing over him. Mako stopped by the gundark, regarding it with some disgust. 

“You want a tooth from it, Mako?” Nisur asked. 

Mako grimaced. “Ew, absolutely not.” 

Aphadas was pretty sure Nisur chuckled. The bounty hunter jumped down from the gundark’s back, and yanked a cloth from one of the pouches on his belt once he was on solid ground. He cleaned the gundark blood off the muzzle of his blaster. 

“Hey,” Nisur said after a moment, and Aphadas realized that he was addressing him. And that he’d been staring, again. 

“Yes?” 

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t take my head off while we’re fighting.” 

Aphadas flinched at how cold Nisur sounded. “I apologize, I’m not used to fighting with someone else on my-”

“Well, get used to it.” Nisur raised his head to look pointedly at Aphadas. “Tunnel vision will get you, and your allies killed in the field. I’d rather that didn’t happen.” 

Aphadas nodded, not knowing what else to say. He’d known for a long time that it was a problem of his, but never what he could do about it. He shuffled anxiously, eyes falling to the ground. He could still feel the bounty hunter watching him, sure that he expected Aphadas to say something, but he did not have words to explain the thoughts that ran through his mind. 

“Phada, where’s your other lightsaber?” Vette brought him back to the present with her question. She had already begun peering around the undergrowth in search of it. 

Aphadas stowed his remaining blade, and reached out a hand. He felt out with the force, seeking the crystal at the core of his lightsaber. Red crystals, though manufactured, still sung out through the force. When he felt the crystal, it was easy enough to pull the lightsaber towards him from the underbrush, straight into his waiting hand. 

“That’s a handy trick,” Mako commented. 

Aphadas nodded. “It is easiest with the lightsabers, because of their cores… But I can do it with other things, as well, as long as I can see them.” 

To demonstrate, he reached out and found the blaster Nisur still had in his hands. He pulled, and it was yanked from the bounty hunter’s grasp and flew to Aphadas, who caught it. 

“Hey!” Nisur protested. He’d reached out to try to catch the blaster, but hadn’t been fast enough. 

Mako laughed, and Vette hid a grin behind her hand. Aphadas held the blaster out for Nisur. The bounty hunter snatched it back from Aphadas and returned it safely to its holster, grumbling under his breath.

“Don’t do that,” Nisur growled. There was real annoyance in his voice.

Aphadas’ cheeks flushed. “I- Of course,” he said. “I apologize.” 

“He was just showing me a trick, Nisur. Don’t be a grouch,” Mako said. 

Nisur seemed to bristle at the accusation. “I’m not being a grouch,” he protested, then added, “Just… give me some warning next time.” 

Aphadas heard Vette chuckled, and looked down at her. She smiled and shook her head. “It’s nothing. We should probably keep moving, though, unless we want this gundark corpse to attract a whole pack of sleen for us to deal with.” 

“I would not mind seeing some sleen,” Aphadas commented. “It has been a while.” 

“Phada, no.” Vette shook her head. “We don’t want to run into any sleen.” 

“They are easier to fight than gundark! And perhaps Nisur has never fought one before,” Aphadas turned back to look at Nisur. “It seems that he was enjoying himself.” 

He sought out some affirmation of this statement, but Nisur had turned his back on the group and seemed to be - pointedly - not listening to the conversation. He looked back when the rest of them grew quiet. 

“What?” 

Mako giggled. “Were you enjoying hunting the big, scary gundark, Nisur?” 

After a pause, Nisur said, “Not much good hunting on Hutta. It’s been awhile since I’ve run into something challenging.” 

“So, the whole shipful of Republic troops?” Vette asked, with one eyebrow quirked up. “Those weren’t challenging?” 

“It’s different,” Nisur said. He shrugged. “That’s my job.” 

Aphadas thought he understood what the bounty hunter was saying. He rubbed at his side as the others started to bicker about game hunting. The gundark’s fist had definitely left a bruise, but it had also been a long day. Aches seeped back into his joints, a clear sign that his stims were beginning to wear off. The fight back on the Brentaal Star, and now this, had burnt most of them off. 

His eyes closed briefly as he exhaled, ran his fingers along the raised crescent that circled his eye. No matter how much he exerted himself, it was always that scar that begun to hurt first. The rest would soon follow, he knew. His hand drifted to his belt as they started walking again. He searched the pouches for his stims, and found nothing but an extra protein bar and a handful of hard candies wrapped in foil. 

He was out of stims. 

“Vette,” he said. 

She stopped walking and looked back at him. “What’s up?” 

“I’m out of stims,” Aphadas said. 

Vette pulled her pack off her back and rummaged through it. She stopped after a moment, and stared into the bag as if it had betrayed her. “We’re all out.” 

“Stims?” Nisur asked. 

“What do you need stims for?” Mako added. 

Vette looked to Aphadas, who looked away. “They’re pain medication,” Vette said. She gestured at Aphadas, all of him, which was the sum of what needed to be indicated. His entire body was a mess. 

Nisur cocked his head, then looked to Mako. “Is there an outpost near here?” 

Mako pulled up her datapad. 

“It is not urgent that I-” 

“There’s one about halfway between the spaceport and the edge of the city.” Mako showed the datapad to Nisur, who nodded. 

“We do not need-”

Aphadas was cut off once again, by Nisur who swung around to look straight at him. 

“We’ll stop, it’s no problem.”

***

Nisur’s blood was still pumping from the fight with the gundark, the thrill of a good hunt was hard to beat. Though, he had to admit that after the fight on the Brentaal Star and the run-in with the local wildlife, he could do with a rest and definitely a meal. A proper bed wouldn’t go amiss, but he’d take anything.

“I’m glad we got a chance to nap on the Black Talon,” Mako said through a yawn. “Today’s been exhausting.”

Nisur grunted. 

They were standing in a large, Imperial hangar in the middle of the jungle. He was almost surprised at the number of people milling about, at the local medical centre and a few stalls selling goods, but by the looks of them, they were mostly slaves. Collars, and ragged clothes. There were only a handful of actual Imperial citizens in the crowd. Nisur sniffed. The whole place served to remind him why he hated Imperial Space. 

“Do you think Aphadas is alright? He was limping by the time we got here…” Mako looked back towards the medical centre. The sith and twi’lek had disappeared inside a while ago, presumably hunting down whatever stims they needed. 

Nisur hefted a shoulder. “Does it matter?” 

“Hey, he’s helping us out. And you seem to like fighting with him. There’s no harm in being nice.”

“He almost decapitated me.” 

Mako paused. “That… was an accident. I think.” 

“It was.” Nisur sighed. “That’s not the point, Mako. He’s not our friend. Tomorrow, we could be hunting him down for a bounty… Or he could decide to kill us. That’s how Sith work.” 

He saw Mako frown and open her mouth, but she stopped before she could get her thought out. Something across the complex had caught her eye, and Nisur turned to follow her line of sight to see what it was. There was a Mirialan woman dressed in full Mandalorian armour, helmet tucked under her arm, with her head tilted to one side. She was looking right at Nisur, as if she recognized him. Nisur froze, bristled up, and he realized that he recoginzed her, too. 

“Kriff,” he swore under his breath. 

The Mirialan perked up. “Verd'ika!” she shouted, which turned some heads and made Nisur wish he could turn on his heal and book it out of the outpost, but she was already coming towards him. 

“Do you know her?” Mako asked. 

Nisur sighed. “Unfortunately, yeah.” He'd recognize one of his aunts anywhere, but especially Chuya. She was close to both of his parents, though he hadn't seen her in years. He braced himself as she neared. “Olarom, ba'vodu-” 

He was only cut off because he suddenly found himself pulled into a hug, practically lifted up off the ground as the Mirialan squeezed him tight. “Su cuy'gar ad,” she said. “What in the stars are you doing on Dromund Kaas, boy? Don't tell me you and your little friend are here for the Great Hunt.” 

Nisur did his best to wriggle his way out of her grasp, but she was bigger and stronger than him. “I won't, then.” 

Chuya laughed. “Well, you haven't changed one bit. Haven't gotten any taller, either.” She let Nisur go, but kept an arm draped of his shoulder. Nisur cringed away from her, but there was very little he could do to escape. Her arms were like plasteel girders. “That brother of yours with you, or is he still up to no good?” 

“Still up to no good,” Nisur grumbled. He glanced at Mako, hoping for some kind of rescue, and discovered that she was doing her very best to keep herself from giggling. He glared at her, not that she could see it because of his helmet, but the act at least made him feel a little better. 

“Well, I guess we can't raise all of them right,” Chuya said with a hefty sigh. 

Nisur snarled a little. “He's not that bad.” 

“Aw, you two,” Chuya tugged Nisur closer again and patted him atop his helmet. “Always sticking up for each other. Only you're allowed to insult your brother, eh? I get that, I get that.” 

Nisur ducked away from her, carefully putting Mako between Chuya and himself to keep himself out of reach from further physical displays of affection. “What are you doing here, anyway?” 

“Just passing through, just passing through.” Chuya pulled a cloth out of one of the many pouches on her belt to wipe off her hands, which Nisur had only just noticed were covered in grease. 

He cringed inwardly, making a note to clean his helmet off when he had the chance. 

“Say, verd'ika... You busy right now?” 

Behind his visor, Nisur narrowed his eyes. He didn't answer, knowing that Chuya wasn't really looking for one. 

“They've got these big, nasty things called gundark out in the jungle,” Chuya started and immediately got Nisur's attention. “Normally they're not a problem, but some idiots have been tampering with the transmission towers out in the jungle and it's driving them mad. So there's a whole camp of Mandos out there trying to score big.”

She finished cleaning off her hands and tucked the cloth, now covered in grime, into her belt. “You up for a little hunt?” 

Nisur perked up a little, interested in what his aunt had to offer. “Actually knew about the gundark. We ran into one on the way here.” 

“Of course, you always did attract trouble.” Chuya laughed. “There's a mando out there trying to monopolize the hunt, and apparently everyone's getting tired of his grandstanding. There's a nice piece of coin building up to take that hut'uun down.”

Nisur was not usually one to ignore the chance to earn some spare coin. And kill someone larger than him. But, he couldn't help but glance at the med centre across the outpost from them. He wondered what the sith would say to a little detour. 

“The Imperials offering a reward for killing him, or something?” Nisur asked Chuya. 

“Nope, but the brothers posted out here are. Bring his head to the enclave and you'll get yourself a nice stack of credits.” 

“So why aren't you hunting him down?” 

Chuya laughed. “I gotta get on my way. Things to do, off this miserable, wet planet.” 

Considering this, Nisur looked at Mako for her opinion. He got a shrug in response. “Hey, it's basically free cash,” Mako said, “And you do love killing big, scary things with lots of teeth.” 

“I do...” Nisur murmured. “Thanks for the tip, ba'vodu.”

With a nonchalant shrug, Chuya patted Mako on the shoulder – since she couldn't reach Nisur, he was sure. “You keep this boy from working himself to death. There's still plenty of time until the Great Hunt starts and he should go have some fun from time to time. Go on a hunt. It'll be great.”


End file.
